Fifty-three thousand tonnes of steel, six million rivets, and three quite different ways to get on top of it.
Opened in March 1932, after eight years of construction, the Harbour Bridge is a steel through-arch spanning 503 metres, carrying eight road lanes, two railway tracks, a footway and a cycleway. Sydneysiders call it the Coathanger.
It was built by Dorman Long of Middlesbrough, and the design owes a great deal to the Hell Gate Bridge in New York, which the engineer John Bradfield studied. The two halves were built out from each bank and met in the middle in August 1930.
Sixteen men died during construction. The bridge required around six million hand-driven rivets and 53,000 tonnes of steel, and it is repainted continuously — the phrase “like painting the Harbour Bridge” for an endless job is Australian in origin.
The opening
At the ceremony on 19 March 1932, before the Premier could cut the ribbon, a man in military uniform on horseback — Francis de Groot of the far-right New Guard — rode forward and slashed it with his sword, declaring the bridge open in the name of the people of New South Wales.
The ribbon was retied and cut properly. De Groot was arrested, briefly committed for psychiatric assessment, and fined. It remains the best-known moment in the bridge’s history.
The three ways up
The pedestrian walkway — free, on the eastern side, accessed by stairs from Cumberland Street in The Rocks or from Milsons Point. It takes about twenty minutes to cross and the views are excellent. Most visitors do not realise it exists.
The Pylon Lookout — inside the south-eastern pylon, 200 steps up, with a small museum on the construction and a 360-degree platform. Modest ticket, and considerably higher than the walkway. Reached from the walkway itself.
The pylons are, incidentally, decorative. They carry no structural load and were added in granite because the arch alone was thought to look unfinished.
BridgeClimb — the commercial climb to the top of the arch at 134 metres, in a jumpsuit, harnessed to a static line, taking two to three and a half hours depending on the option. Expensive. You cannot take a camera or phone; photographs are taken for you and sold.
It is genuinely a good experience and it is not necessary — the view from the Pylon Lookout is 90 per cent of it for a small fraction of the price. Whether the remaining ten per cent is worth several hundred dollars is a personal question.
Under it
Dawes Point on the south side and Milsons Point on the north both put you directly beneath, which is the best place to appreciate the scale. Luna Park, the 1935 amusement park with the enormous grinning face at its entrance, is at Milsons Point and free to walk into.
New Year’s Eve
The bridge is the centrepiece of the fireworks, and vantage points around the harbour fill from early morning. Many are ticketed or require booking months ahead.
More Landmarks
Sydney Opera House
A building that took sixteen years, ten times its budget and its architect's career, and is worth every part of that.
Bondi Beach
A kilometre of sand, a surf club that invented lifesaving, and a coastal walk that is better than the beach.
The Rocks
The oldest European quarter in Australia, saved from demolition by a builders' union in the 1970s.